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Not Elk Viewing in NeedfulSep 18, 2006
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Sunset in Ohio
Early Fall in Pennsylvania
Noble Odysseus
| We have spent the last three days driving across Ohio and Pennsylvania on the Interstate highways. It is hilly with hardwood forests lining the roads. There is an abundance of goldenrod along the roadside. There are touches of fall colors--yellow, red, russet and orange—among the green. The days have been beautiful with temperatures in the 70s, but the nights remind us autumn is approaching with temperatures in the low 50s. We camped near Akron, OH, one night and spent last night in Needful, PA (love that name). Tonight we are in the Pocono's near Stroudsburg, PA, not far from the New Jersey border. The last three campgrounds we have stayed at have many long term sites that are used all summer by a family. They are in pretty rural areas, with activities, entertainment and play areas for children. I guess it is an alternative to owning a cottage in the mountains or near a lake. We decided we were tired on driving the interstates and would drive some scenic back country roads. We got up at 5:30 this morning, ate a breakfast of oatmeal cooked with raisins and apples, and set off in a thick fog into the Pennsylvania "wilds". (It is actually called that.) We were headed to the elk viewing area. Elk once roamed Pennsylvania along with bison, wolves, bears, etc. Settlements and over hunting had killed all the eastern elk by 1867. Starting in 1913 Rocky Mountain elk from Yellowstone and the Black Hills were imported by the Pennsylvania Game Commission to Pennsylvania in the hopes they would proliferate. There are now about 1,000 elk in Pennsylvania centering in Elk County. We drove to the most common elk grazing areas and an elk viewing park. It was still very foggy; we could not see more than about 100 yards. We hiked through the woods hoping to see an elk. We heard a bull elk bugling—a common sound during the rut season in September. But we saw no live elk. We saw cows, horses, statues of elk, many birds and road kill—BUT NO ELK. After working so hard looking for elk, we decided we needed a second breakfast. We stopped in Clearfield at the Dutch Pantry. We had eggs and then drove back to Needful to pick up our RV and continue driving east. We will arrive in New York tomorrow and go to Croton Point, a Westchester County Park. It has RV facilities and is on the Hudson River. |
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